Clean Break

The lab's database is referenced in The Mom’s Guide to Growing Your Family Green: Saving the Earth Begins at Home (St. Martin’s Press), by author Terra Wellington. The first how-to book for everyday parents on saving the environment and improving the health and safety of their families hit bookshelves March 17, 2009.

The mention in the manuscript is a recommendation to use the CleanerSolutions Database to determine the greenness and safety of cleaning products in the cleaning chapter of the book.

Recently articles on the DIY cleaning recipe work conducted at the TURI Lab:

The UMass Lowell Toxics Use Reduction Institute recently demonstrated for The Sun how it tests various solutions for safety and cleaning effectiveness.


Brazilian Women's Group work

Alternative Cleaning Testing
Testing has finally slowed down. No new companies worked with the lab this past month. We did run some testing for companies already working with the lab.

We are working on case studies documenting the work we have accomplished with several of the companies. The reports are currently being reviewed internally by the TURI staff.

Product Certification Testing
Several companies have been working with the lab to have products evaluated for performance so that the products can be certified by various environmental standards. Testing has been conducted for Green Seal certification for GS 8, 34 and 37. Additional work has been done for product certification for EPA's DfE Formulators project.

Database
Work is continuing on the Search Wizard. Preliminary links to TURI's P2OASys data links for cleaning products have been added. This will give the end users more access to health and safety information for alternative cleaning products.

Outreach
Presented at KSU workshop in Wichita – 3/10/09 on database and lab services. Nearly 80 people were in attendance. A couple of the vendors contacted the lab about getting their products listed on the site.

The lab has been asked to write a chapter in the Handbook for Critical Cleaning, edited by Barbara and Ed Kanegsberg from CRC Press. The chapter will document the lab's success in assisting companies in the search for a safer and effective cleaning product.

Strategic Planning for Next Fiscal Year
Work has begun for next year's plans for the lab. In the works: a hands on workshop held at the the TURI Lab; an on-line P2OASys interface; and a possible disinfection assessment partnership established on the UML campus within the School of Health and Environment.

Kansas State University Pollution Prevention Institute Seminar

On Tuesday, March 10, a presentation will be given on the lab's process of assisting companies looking to find safer cleaning chemicals. An overview of the CleanerSolutions database will be given.

To find out more about this presentation check here.